Geronimo
is Spanish for Jerome, applied by the Mexicans as a nickname. His native
name Goyathlay, `one who yawns'). A medicine man and prophet of the
Chiricahua Apache who, in the latter part of the 19th century, acquired
notoriety through his opposition to the authorities and by systematic and
sensational advertising; born about 1834 at the headwaters of Gila River, New
Mexico, near old Ft Tulerosa. His father was Taklishim,

`The
Gray One,' who was not a chief, although his father (Geronimo's grandfather)
assumed to be a chief without heredity or election. Geronimo's mother was known
as
Juana.

When it was decided, in 1876, in consequence of depredations committed in
Sonora, of which the Mexican government complained, to remove the Chiricahua
from their reservation on the south frontier to San Carlos, Arizona. Geronimo
and others of the younger chiefs fled into Mexico. He was arrested later when he
returned with his band to Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, and tilled the ground in
peace on San Carlos reservation until the Chiricahua became discontented because
the Government would not help them irrigate their lands. In 1882 Geronimo led
one of the hands that raided in Sonora and surrendered when surrounded by General
George H. Crook's force in the Sierra Madre. He had one of the best farms at San
Carlos, when trouble arose in 1854 in consequence of the attempt of the
authorities to stop the making of tiswin, the native intoxicant.

During 1884-85 he gathered a band of hostiles, who terrorized the inhabitants of
south Arizona and New Mexico, as well as of Sonora and Chihuahua, in Mexico.
Gen. Crook proceeded against them with instructions to capture or destroy the
chief and his followers.

In Mar. 1886, a truce was made, followed by a conference, at which the terms of
surrender were agreed on; but Geronimo and his followers having again fled to
the Sierra Madre across the Mexican frontier, and General Miles having been
placed in command, active operations were renewed and their surrender was
ultimately effected in the following August. The entire band, numbering about
340, including Geronimo and Nachi, the hereditary chief, were deported as
prisoners of war, first to Florida and later to Alabama, being finally settled
at Ft Sill, Okla., where they now reside under military supervision and in
prosperous condition, being industrious workers and careful spenders. (J. M. C.
T. )

Cochise

A
Chiricahua Apache chief, son and successor of Nachi. Although constantly at feud
with the Mexicans, he gave no trouble to the Americans until after he went, in
1861, under a flag of truce, to the camp of a party of soldiers to deny that his
tribe had abducted a white child. The commanding officer was angered by this and
ordered the visiting chiefs seized and bound because they would not confess. One
was killed and four were caught, but Cochise, cutting through the side of a
tent, made his escape with three bullets in his body and immediately began
hostilities to avenge his companions, who were hanged by the Federal troops. The
troops were forced to retreat, and white settlements in Arizona were laid waste.

Soon
afterward the military posts were abandoned, the troops being recalled to take
part in the Civil war. This convinced the Apache that they need only to fight to
prevent Americans front settling in their country. Cochise and Mangos Coloradas
defended Apache pass in southeast Arizona against the Californians, who marched
under Gen. Carleton to reopen communication between the Pacific coast and the
east. The howitzers of the California volunteers put the Apache to flight . When
United States troops returned to resume the occupancy of the country after the
close of the Civil war, a war of extermination was carried on against the
Apache.

Cochise did not surrender till Sept., 1871. When orders came to transfer his
people from Canada Alamosa to the new Tularosa reservation, in New Mexico, he
escaped with a hand of 200 in the spring of 1872, and his example was followed
by 600 others. After the Chiricahua reservation was established Arizona, in the
summer of 1872, he carne in, and there died in peace June 8, 1874. He was
succeeded as chief by his son Taza. The southeastern most county of Arizona
bears Cochise's name.

Nahche
Nahche (Na-ai-che, `mischievous,' `meddlesome.'-George Wrattan). An Apache
warrior, a member of the Chiricahua band. He is the second son of the celebrated
Cochise, and as hereditary chief succeeded his elder brother, Tazi, on the death
of the latter. His mother was a daughter of the notorious Mangas Coloradas.

As
a child Nahche was meddlesome and mischievous, hence his name. He was the
leading spirit in the many raids that almost desolated the smaller settlements
of Arizona and New Mexico and of northern Chihuahua and Sonora between 1881 and
1886, for which Geronimo's, a Medicine-man and malcontent rather than a warrior,
received the chief credit. In the latter year Geronimo's band, so called, of
which Nahche was actually the chief, was captured by General Miles and taken as
prisoners of war successively to Florida, Alabama, and finally to Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, where Nahche still resides, respected by his own people as well as by
the whites.

He
is now (1907) about 49 years of age. In his prime as a warrior he was described
as supple and graceful, with long, flexible hands, and a rather handsome face.
His present height is 5 ft. 10½ inches Colonel H. L. Scott (infantry, 1907),
for four years in charge of the Chiricahua prisoners in Oklahoma, speaks of
Nahche as a most forceful and reliable man, faithfully performing the duties
assigned to him as a prisoner, whether watched or not.

He
was proud and self-respecting, and was regarded by the Chiricahua at Fort Sill
as their leader. In recent years, however, he has lost his old-time influence as
well as some of his trustworthiness (infantry from George Wrattan, official
interpreter, 1907).

Nakaidoklini

Nakaidoklini
(? 'freckled Mexican' Matthews) An Apache medicine-man called Babbyduclone,
Barbudeclenny, Bobby-dok-linny, Nakydoklunni, Nock-ay-Delklinne, eic., by the
whites, influential among the White Mountain Indians in 1881, near Camp Apache,
Arizona. He taught them a new dance, claiming it would bring dead warriors
to life. In an attempt to arrest him, August 30, the Apache scouts with
the troops turned upon the soldiers, resulting in a fight in which several were
killed on each side, including the medicine-man himself. See Bourke in 9th
Rep. B. A. E. 505, 1892; Mooney in 14th Rep. B.A.E. 704, 1896.

Mangas Coloradas (In Spanish means `red sleeves') .

A
Mimbreno Apache chief. He pledged friendship to the Americans when General
S. W. Kearny took possession of New Mexico in 1846. The chief stronghold of the
Mimbrefios at that time was at the Santa Rita copper mines, south west New
Mexico, where they had killed the miners in 1837 to avenge a massacre committed
by white trappers who invited a number of Mimbrenos to a feast and murdered them
to obtain the bounty of $100 offered by the state of Chihuahua for every Apache
scalp.

When
the boundary commission made its headquarters at Santa Rita trouble arose over
the taking from the Mimbreno Apache of some Mexican captives and over the murder
of an Indian by a Mexican whom the Americans refused to hang on the spot: The
Mimbrenos retaliated by stealing some horses and mules belonging to the
commission, and when the commissioners went on to survey another section of the
boundary the Indians conceived that they had driven them away.

In
consequence of indignities received at the hands of miners at the Pinos Altos
gold mines, by whom he was bound and whipped, - Mangas Coloradas collected a
large band of Apache and became the scourge of the white settlements for years.
He formed an alliance with Cochise to resist the Californian volunteers who
reoccupied the country when it was abandoned by troops at the beginning of the
Civil war, and was wounded in an engagement at Apache pass, south east Arizona,
that grew out of a misunderstanding regarding a theft of cattle. His men took
him to Janos, in Chihuahua, and left him in the care of a surgeon with a warning
that the town would be destroyed in case he were not cured: According to one
account, soon after his recovery he was taken prisoner in Jan., 1863, by the
Californians and was killed while attempting to escape, goaded, it is said, with
a red-hot bayonet (Dunn, Massacres of Mts., 365, 374, 382, 1886), while Bell
(New Tracks, ii, 24, 1869) states that in 1862 he was induced to enter Fort
McLane, New Mexico, on the plea of making a treaty and receiving presents.

The
soldiers imprisoned him in a hut, and at night a sentry shot him under the
pretext that he feared the Indian would escape. Consult also Bancroft, Arizona
and New Mexico, 1880.